August 24, 2011

Jon Stewart Will Return to Campus for Parents’ Weekend Shows

Along with mothers and fathers eager to reunite with their children, this year’s First-Year Parents’ Weekend will bring television funnyman Jon Stewart to campus, The Cornell University Programing Board announced Wednesday.Stewart, host of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart on Comedy Central, will return to Ithaca this fall for two weekend performances in Barton Hall on October 28 and 29.“We’re really excited to bring back a comedian who Cornellians have requested on so many of our surveys,” CUPB Chairperson Cameron Breen ’12 said.While Cornellians may know Stewart best for his sharp-tongued political commentary on The Daily Show, they will see an entirely new side of him when he returns to his stand-up roots for the Barton shows, Breen said.“Jon Stewart started his career as a stand-up comedian, and it’s going to be a great comedy show,” he said.The Friday and Saturday shows will be the first time in three years that CUPB has used the 5,000-person capacity Barton Hall, which has more often featured performances put on by Cornell Concert Commission. The last time CUPB used the space was for Howie Mandel’s appearance during fall 2008’s Parents’ Weekend.“We believe that Jon Stewart is that name that will bring people into Barton Hall,” Breen said. “We’re hoping to attract families as well as the rest of the Cornell and Ithaca communities.”Stewart’s upcoming performances mark the third time that he has made the trek to Ithaca. He previously appeared in front of sold-out audiences in Bailey Hall in 2001 and Barton Hall in 2005.According to Sun archives, for his 2001 appearance Stewart hit hardest with his dirty material. “Handjobs, diarrhea and horny cats won the day,” a review reported. In 2005, “Stewart elicited almost constant applause and uproarious laughter from the audience during each show,” The Sun reported.Stewart has received many critical accolades for his work on The Daily Show, including two Peabody Awards and 14 Emmys. Stewart is also known for his book America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction, and for hosting the 78th and 80th Academy Awards.

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Cornell administrators and professors are fighting to save the University’s “critical languages” program — which offers instruction in 11 lesser-known languages of national interest such as Thai and Khmer — after the federal government slashed approximately half of its funding on May 13. Students will continue to receive instruction in these languages this year after Provost Kent Fuchs decided in June that his office would temporarily provide 90-percent of the languages’ lost funding.